Whoa whoa whoa...

Hey there.  Diving in.  

1)  I'm still on Jury Duty, so I haven't had time to connect with Stephen yet.  But...

2)  Stephen:  You can use whatever criteria you want, but two caveats:

      A)  The contest is to watch Falling Hare, and write it in script.

      B)  The winner is the script that best reflects that cartoon in a way that it could then turned into an actual cartoon.  "None of the above" can't be an option because we're looking for the best version of that.

That being said: 

Ya can't put out rules as to what you're looking for in the middle of this, as it gives an unfair advantage to people who haven't submitted yet.    If we do this again, feel free.

But the above has always been the mission statement for this... anything other than that - and especially changing how this works - wouldn't be cool.   (Note:  I moderated comments long enough to get this up here and connect via Email)

Tomorrow's the last day of jury duty, and I'm sure we'll chat after that.

    - Steve

             

Extension!

Well, as you probably guessed by the recent back and forth, I'm going to extend the deadline. No rule changes, same deal: Write "Falling Hare"

Submission deadline moved... one month. April 30th.

Just to remind from the previous post:

- - - - - - -

So, by now, some of you have probably figured out what I was thinking about... but maybe you didn't figure out all of the details.

I think there are writers who can write lyrically, visually and well enough that they can script out a classic.

I am not so vain as to think it's me.

But I do believe that person is out there.

And so, in honor of this week's "Annie Awards," which also includes script writing as part of its list of honors... I'd like to propose, announce (and God Help Me, fund) the First annual Script Script That Classic Contest!

The rules are pretty simple:

Watch the cartoon. Write a script in Final Draft, or in RTF format. Mail it to me at Marmel@marmel.com. Include your name, address, contact information, etc.

I will then log it, anonymize it (remove all names, etc.) and then submit it for judging.

And while I plan on reaching out to other board artists, directors and story people to help go through the stuff and give opinions, I would like the final judge of this to be Stephen Worth.

Pick the best of the bunch. Show script writers what's right.
And in return, you can take the worst of the bunch, and gut it.

Here's what happens when a winner is picked.

The winner will be announced, and un-anonymized. I will see that the winner is paid a "teleplay fee" for a short-subject script - as determined by the IATSE/TAG 839 rules. I think it's a little less than $2000. This may be out of my own pocket, but I'd like to see this person be paid to punch up an existing project. (Note: If the winner is from out of state, travelling to a punch up meeting would be on them.)

I will personally make an in-kind donation to the ASIFA-Archive.

So... it might be a bust, but I'll still honor my part.

So, three days and counting before the March 31st deadline for "Script that classic" times out. And the fact is, submissions have been... well... LOW.

And that's cool. It was an experiment, it started a debate, and that's what I was gunning for. And perhaps I could have promoted it more - but then, I had a few weeks of human stuff hit, and that's life.

For the record, submissions are still open. Also for the record, Stephen Worth wrote a very eloquent defense as to why he didn't want to judge this, and I respect it. To be fair, his time would have been very minimal. So will mine.

However, there are still three days or so left to submit a version to me, anonymously and there still is a cash reward that will be paid out. And I will do this again. Next time, tho, I might shrink the contest down to a section, rather than a whole script. Lesson learned. :)

I return to Jury duty and will announce a winner mid-April.